Kiki

About 13 years ago, my daughter asked me for a cat for her birthday.  So off we went to the animal shelter and found a scrawny little kitten.  Kristalyn liked it more than its better fed sibling because it was so affectionate.  As soon as she picked it up, it started purring, and that was it.  She was in love, and this was the kitty she had to have.

The little kitty was in such bad condition that we had to sign a waiver that indicated that if this cat died after we took it home, the animal shelter wasn’t responsible.  But we took it home any way, and it wasn’t long before the cat was a normal weight and adjusting to life with our family.

I thought we should name it KC for “Kristalyn’s cat,” but she liked Kiki.  So Kiki became a part of our family.  One funny thing that happened was when we took the little girl in to get fixed, we found out that it was a little boy.  We hadn’t really checked to see and had just assumed that because the kitty was so small, it was a girl.  It was too late to rename the cat or to change its pronoun.  So for the family, we had a girl cat, but for the vet, it was a boy cat.  Hopefully we didn’t cause the cat to have gender identity issues.

For the first several years, Kristalyn took care of the cat, feeding it and cleaning out the litter box.  Then the cat ran away and was gone for several weeks.  We thought it was gone for good, but one day it mysteriously came back.  From then on, it never got more than one or two houses from ours except when it decided to follow me and the dog on our daily walks.  There were times when it got older that it couldn’t make it all the way and I had to carry it home.  But I didn’t mind.

Then the cat and my husband had a feud (I would say a pissing contest, but my husband wasn’t peeing on anything.). Eventually it got so bad that the cat became an outside cat.  Luckily it had friends in our dogs that primarily lived outside.  But after the dogs died, I was concerned that our elderly cat wouldn’t be safe outside, so I brought her/him inside.

The cat had a bit of an attitude and peed where it shouldn’t a couple of times.  But mostly it was good.  By this time Kristalyn had moved out and had a cat of her own.  Then the cat got sick, and the sicker it got, the sweeter it was.  No attitude, just pure love and sweetness.  So it was hard when I had to make the decision to end the cat’s suffering.  I would like to say that it was a good experience, but it really wasn’t.  It was hard.  Maybe that’s how God feels when it’s time to end our lives.  I don’t know.

And now I am going through the painful process of missing Kiki jumping up and cuddling me.  I’m giving away her/his food, litter box, treats, etc.  It’s time to move on to life without having to take care of either animals or kids, but that nurturing side of me misses the chance to do loving things for those I care about.

My husband says that we are in the sweet spot of our lives between having kids and having grandkids, and it is pretty peaceful out our house.  So I guess I just need to be grateful for what is, and today is a beautiful perfect sunny spring day with a high temperature in the mid 70s.  You can’t ask for better than that.  Life moves on, as it will when all of us are gone.  Let’s just hope the time we spent here was worth something.

Joke:  Cats are really clean.  What other animal keeps its litter in boxes? 

Quote:  “As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the humankind.” – Cleveland Amory

Advice:  Cats know how to relax and enjoy life.  We should learn to do the same.